Artificial-sweetening compositions have been employed for imparting sweeteners to food, beverage, confectionery and other products, and more particularly artificial-sweetening agents and compositions have been used by persons affected by physiological disorders, such as diabetes mellitus, and by those persons who must restrict their caloric intake as part of a weight-control regimen. Artificial-sweetening agents are useful not only in food and beverages, but also are useful in certain oral and cosmetic compositions.
Sweetening and flavoring characteristics have been imparted to various compositions by the use of various synthetic sweeteners. The most commonly used artificial sweeteners are the compounds of saccharin. A number of dihydrochalcone glycosides and dihydrochalcones has been known to impart a sweet taste, such as, for example, as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,087,871; 3,583,984; 3,974,299; 3,984,394; and 3,013,801. U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,790, which patent is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, in particular discloses that 2,4,6,3'-tetrahydroxy-4'-methoxydihydrochalcone (hereinafter referred to as THMDHC) is one of a group of dihydrochalcone compounds suitable for use as a sweetening agent in food products, but disclaims it as being so insoluble in water that a 0.009% solution would not be made up simply, and, thus, its usefulness as a sweetener would be minimal.
The dihydrochalcones appear to be nontoxic and potentially attractive as nonsugar-sweetening agents, especially because they are noncaloric, not having any insulin requirement. However, THMDHC has not proven to be satisfactory wholly, because of its insolubility in aqueous solutions and bitter aftertaste. In addition, many of the dihydrochalcones, especially 2,4,6,3'-tetrahydroxy-4'-methoxy dihydrochalcone, are insoluble in water, and other dihydrochalcones have limited or insufficient solubility in water, which limits their usefulness as artificial sweeteners in food, beverage and confectionery products.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an artificial-sweetening composition with enhanced sweetening power, with good water solubility and with no or minimum menthol or bitter aftertaste effects at the concentration level employed.